Taking Wide-Angle Photos - Olympus E-3 User Manual

Taking wide-angle photos

Wide-angle shots are created by zooming out
as far as possible (reducing the focal length).
As on land, this lets you get more into the
picture, making it particularly useful for providing
photo graphers with the ability to get close to their
subject and still fit the motif within the frame
limits. Furthermore, it is great for taking shots of
large subjects such as manta rays and sharks.
Unlike on land, however, using the wideangle
to take underwater panorama shots will generally
not yield good results due to the problem of
colours losing their vibrancy with increasing
distance and the floating particles that can affect
image quality, as explained earlier.
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Lighting plays an important role when taking
wide-angle shots and it is recommended to use
the available ambient light for the background
(by shooting slightly upwards at a shallow depth)
and use the flash to light up the subject.
Tips: • If available, use the appropriate scene mode
on your camera (some Olympus models feature
an underwater wide-scene mode)
• Wide-angle photography should preferably
be done on sunny days (more ambient light)
• Try to get dimension into your compositions
by including a foreground and background
in your photos
• Don't be disappointed if your first shots
don't work out as expected – keep trying.
Getting good underwater wide-angle photos
takes practice and patience!
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